The story, the philosophy, and the person behind it.
MyFIRE started as a personal tool. I wanted to know one thing: when can I stop working? I couldn’t find a calculator that modeled the complete picture — the bridge fund gap, the real Monte Carlo uncertainty. So I built one.
The first version was a spreadsheet, like most people's first attempt. It answered the easy question fine — multiply annual spending by 25, watch the number grow. What it couldn’t answer was the question that actually decides whether an early retirement plan survives: what happens in the years between the day you stop working and the day the accounts holding most of that money legally unlock? A spreadsheet with a straight-line 7% return doesn’t know that markets crash in specific, unlucky years, or that a 401(k) built for a 65-year-old retirement doesn’t care that you’re trying to retire at 45.
Most FIRE calculators answer a simpler question than the one that actually matters. They tell you a FIRE number — 25× your annual spending — and stop there. But getting to financial independence early raises a harder problem: how do you fund the years between quitting your job and turning 59½, when your 401k and IRA are still locked up? How do you sequence withdrawals so taxes don’t quietly erase a decade of saving? And how confident should you really be, given that markets don’t move in a straight 7% line — that a retiree in 1966 and a retiree in 1982 with the identical savings faced completely different odds of success, purely because of when they started?
Those are the questions the spreadsheet turned into a real tool to answer — for one person first, and now for anyone who wants the same rigor without needing to build it themselves.
Retirement numbers are some of the most sensitive financial data you have. MyFIRE gives you a real choice in how that data is handled:
Your data never leaves your device. Nothing is sent to a server unless you explicitly save to the cloud.
Encrypted with row-level security — only you can read your saved plans, even from our side.
Whichever mode you choose: your data is never sold, never shared with advertisers, and always exportable as a file you control.
MyFIRE uses the 4% withdrawal rule, three-phase retirement modeling, and 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations against 96 years of real S&P 500 data. Read the full methodology →
MyFIRE isn’t a finished product that shipped once and stopped. It’s actively maintained — new calculators, new guides, and fixes to the modeling itself go out on an ongoing basis, in the open, at planmyfire.org.
Recent additions include couple-mode planning, income-stream and state-tax modeling, a Roth conversion ladder guide, and a rewritten withdrawal-strategy engine — all driven by the same question the tool started with: what actually determines whether an early retirement plan holds up.
MyFIRE is built and maintained by a solo founder in the Chicago area, originally for personal use. It is not affiliated with any financial institution or advisor.
Is MyFIRE free?
Yes — the calculator, bridge fund modeling, Monte Carlo simulation, and withdrawal strategy tools are free with no account required. The AI assistant includes a free weekly allowance; additional questions are available through small one-time credit packs, not a subscription.
Are you a registered investment advisor?
No. MyFIRE is a planning and modeling tool, not financial advice, and the founder is not a registered investment adviser. It’s built to give you real numbers to bring to your own decisions — or to a fee-only CFP if you want a second opinion.
How is my data protected?
You choose. In local mode, your plan never leaves your device. In cloud mode, it’s stored with row-level security so only your account can read it. Either way, your data is never sold or shared with advertisers, and it’s always exportable as a plain file you control.
Why should I trust the calculations?
The math is published, not hidden — the full methodology page shows the formulas, the withdrawal-rate research behind them, and the real historical S&P 500 data used for Monte Carlo testing, so you can check the work instead of taking it on faith.
Is the AI assistant private?
Questions are proxied through a server-side relay with no client-side API keys, and the assistant only sees the plan numbers already in your session — it doesn’t have access to anything beyond what you’ve entered.
Can I take my data elsewhere?
Yes, at any time. Every plan can be saved to or loaded from a plain file, so you’re never locked into MyFIRE to keep access to your own numbers.
Does MyFIRE replace a financial advisor?
No — it replaces the spreadsheet, not the advisor. For complex situations (business sales, estate planning, complicated tax situations) a fee-only CFP is still worth the conversation. MyFIRE is built to make that conversation more informed, not to substitute for it.
I found a bug, or have an idea — who do I tell?
hello@planmyfire.org goes straight to the person who built it. Bug reports and feature requests are both genuinely welcome.
Questions, feedback, or bug reports: hello@planmyfire.org